


Fallen

by Gemi



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-28
Updated: 2013-12-28
Packaged: 2018-01-06 12:10:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1106652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gemi/pseuds/Gemi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Donatello wasn't moving. Not even a little.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The heavy weight of the wooden planks made his arms tremble.

He wasn't sure how long he had been in this position; on his knees, hands pressed firmly to the cold, rough concrete floor.  
It felt like mere seconds, but he was sure the shock, the adrenaline, had only just begun to wear off.

He was breathing heavily. He was afraid to look, because there was a damn good reason he was holding up the heavy weight.

Michelangelo opened his eyes.

Donatello laid beneath him. Still out cold, and Mikey still wasn't sure what had happened.  
His brother had just suddenly fallen down, frozen, reminding him a little of a robot whose batteries just went out.  
Which was freaky, because it was way too easy to think Donnie as a robot.

Donatello wasn't moving. Not even a little.  
Mikey swallowed.

"Donnie?" he asked, voice hoarse. "Donnie, dude, you awake? Alright?"

Donatello continued to simply breath.  
There wasn't even a twitch, not even the rolling of eyes or a twitch of his fingers.  
It made Mikey scared. 

Donatello didn't even have any bruises, and as far as he could see no darts were poking out.  
Not drugged, not knocked unconscious.

And the weight was becoming a serious problem. His muscles were trembling, clenching, twitching.

He couldn't even get to his shell-cell to call their brothers.

And he would so yell at Leo for that later- sure, the splitting up had seemed like a good idea at first, but it turned bad and it _had_ to be Leo's fault.  
Had to be, because right now Mikey seriously needed to blame someone else but himself, or Donnie's freaky unconsciousness.

And maybe Leo had heard Mikey cussing him out in his mind, because suddenly Raph’s and Leo’s bickering could be heard in the way too big warehouse.

“Leo!” Mikey yelled, “Donnie fainted!”

Abrupt silence, and then he could hear the padding of feet as his brothers ran to them.

It went very quickly after that- the planks were thrown to the side, and Leonardo and Raphael picked up Donnie.  
They kinda half-ran to the van, and still Donatello didn’t so much as twitch. 

It was eerie. 

Donnie didn’t look like he was unconscious; he just looked like he was sleeping, except he wasn’t curled up like a cat. Mikey knew that his brother always curled up like a cat when he slept, but now Donnie just laid there. All limp and almost-sleeping, and Mikey clung to his body as Raph let the van tear through the streets. Which was good- Raph was almost as good a driver as Donnie was, at least way better than Leo. Leo was almost as bad as Splinter, but only almost.

Mikey bowed his head and pressed his forehead against Donnie’s. 

He had a fever. Barely there, but it was a little warmer than usual. 

When they reached home and carried Donatello into his room and laid him to bed, their brother still hadn’t stirred.  
His limbs were heavy, and they fell to the mattress with a light bounce. They tucked him in, and then they tried to figure out what to do.

Mikey wished that Splinter was there; but no, he had to leave them for another journey.

Which had been _fine_ , it had been _awesome_ , but then this happened.

Donnie was always the one with answers.  
But when he wasn’t, Splinter had them. 

But neither were here, and Mikey could see on his other two brothers that they were just as frightened as him.

 

Donatello remained out of it for nearly a week.

They did all kind of icky duties then- Donnie’s body had needs, after all, but it was almost a relief to have something to complain about.  
Complaining made it all seem less serious. Less serious was good, it made Mikey burn less food and made a ghost of a smile appear on Leonardo’s lips.  
Didn’t help Raph much though, because Raphael was way too busy beating on dummies in the dojo and snapping at Leo’s throat, and Leo snapped right back.

Mikey spent most of his time in Donnie’s room.

No doubt would his brother have thrown a fit if he knew; Michelangelo always managed to break something when he was in there for more than five minutes, after all.  
But he guessed it was because Donnie was awake then.  
Now Mikey had not broken even a tiny thing, and he was sure Donatello would be disbelieving and then proud about the fact. 

If he woke up, at least.

It was a scary possibility. But it wasn’t normal to just fall asleep like that, if it was even that.  
It was like coma, but more peaceful because Donnie didn’t look sick.  
Was still horrible. 

 

Michelangelo watched his brother. 

He fiddled with the blanket.  
Shifted in his seat. Squirmed and sighed.  
He tried to talk sometimes. But it just felt weird, and sometimes his two crazy brothers would check in and give him angry or sad looks for it. 

Mikey decided he hated all this.

“Donnie,” he said. Hushed and almost a whisper.

He poked Donnie’s cheek. Felt stupid for doing it, and stroked it instead.  
Warm. A little too warm, normal human temperature but fever-hot for them.  
Mikey thumbed one freckle. Donnie didn’t really have freckles- not like how Mikey did -but the ones he had were barely visible.  
Though Mikey had stared enough at him this past week to know _how_ many his genius brother really had.

“Donnie,” he repeated. “Guess what? You really should wake up now.”

No response. Donatello let out a soft puff of air, before sucking a new one in.

“Like, now,” Mikey said. Shifted in his seat. “I totally get why you sleep, dude; it’s nice, isn’t it? And you always complain about what a waste of time it is, but man, look at you now!” He tried to grin. It felt a bit weird to do it, so he dropped it. “You’re sleeping more than I ever get to do. So not fair. And Leo and Raph are totally jealous, they won’t stop fighting over it.” 

He would have said more.

Except that Donnie’s hands twitched.

Mikey nearly shrieked like a little girl; it was a sudden movement, completely unexpected.  
But then he felt pure, bright joy, because the hands kept twitching and Donnie was _frowning_ , brows going together as if he was uncomfortable. 

Michelangelo should go and find his brothers.  
Tell them that Donnie was waking up, or at the very least reacting.

But Donnie’s eyelids were fluttering, fighting to lift themselves, and Mikey held his breath.  
He leaned in, eyes wide, and he couldn’t stop a grin of hope.  
Donatello was waking up. Donnie was waking up, and everything would be okay! 

And then Donatello’s eyes snapped open, and they were red and feral and not okay.

Mikey had two seconds to wonder what had gone wrong, and then the world was filled with pain.


	2. Chapter 2

Raphael’s hand was heavy and filled with frustration, curled into a hard fist. 

Leonardo met it with an open palm, and then he kicked out.   
Raphael dodged, before he snarled and dove back in. 

It had become a routine this week. 

A horrible routine, tinged with familiarity, because the anger was familiar, as was the routine of pairing off in the dojo.

The frustration and fear was a new thing, though.   
It rarely came up and was still an oddity when it did.

Leonardo grunted as he shielded himself with his arms.  
Raphael spat a curse. Leonardo dodged a tackle and with the swoop of one leg, he managed to make his brother fall to the floor.

Normally, Leonardo was as angry and frustrated as Raph was.

But today he was only tired; tired and depressed, because he had never gone a full week without ever knowing what to do. He wondered if this was how it was going to be, the day Splinter left them for good. Disasters happening, disasters he couldn’t solve, disasters he couldn’t rely on his brothers to solve.

It was frustrating, and more than a little frightening. 

But his wariness for the day had sent Raphael into a fit; his brother wanted everyone to be as angry as him right now, as passionate. And Leonardo had always been an easy target.  
Then again, Leo always invited Raphael into the fights with sharp words and venomous insults. Frustration always brought out the worst in both of them.

Leonardo watched his brother with cold eyes.

Raphael was panting. The dark skin was shiny with sweat.

He wondered, vaguely, for how long they had been fighting.   
Mikey didn’t keep time- he had holed himself up in Donnie’s room since this all happened.

Spoke to Donnie, as if the stories of coma patients hearing them was true. Not that Donatello was in coma; this was different. Something was wrong with him, his energy too dark and cracked. When he had mentioned it to Raph, his brother had snorted and thrown a towel in his face, and mere seconds after they had both exploded into another fist fight.

Raphael was rising to his feet. Leonardo blinked, bringing himself back to reality.  
His lips slipped into a smirk, cold and twisted and not good. 

“Want some more?” he asked, and he could _feel_ the angry growl of his brother. 

Leonardo prepared himself for it, both of them tensing as they prepared to collide once more.

And then there was a loud crash, and seconds after there was a scream.

They were running before they knew it.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm writing this as the urge hits me, but I still appreciate any comments you wish to make. :3  
> I'm not sure if I'll put pairings into this, either. We will see! Thank you for reading <3


End file.
